Texas ranks ahead of California in best cities for jobs

Texas ranks ahead of California in best cities for jobs

Forbes recently ran the employment numbers and found, unsurprisingly, that Texas is home to some of the best cities for jobs in 2013.

"Some East Coast boosters of the Golden State are making [the claim that California is pulling ahead of Texas], but we don't see it in this year's numbers," say columnists Joel Kotkin and Mike Shires, who looked at the short, medium and long-term employment performance of 398 metropolitan statistical areas for the ranking.

"Besides the tech-rich Bay Area, home to two of our top 10 large metro areas, there are no other major California cities near the top . . . In contrast, the Texas juggernaut rolls on. Growth there has not only been steady, it's been widely spread across the state."

Five of the Lone Star State's major metro areas rank among "The Best Big Cities for Jobs 2013": Fort Worth-Arlington takes No. 4 on the list, trailed by Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, which saw 2 percent employment growth in 2012, at No. 5.

With 3.5 percent employment growth in 2012, Dallas-Plano-Irving is No. 6 in the ranking for the second year in a row, while Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos places No. 10 and San Antonio ranks No. 12.

Smaller metro areas are also gaining economic traction: Midland and Odessa rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, among small cities with less than 150,000 jobs, followed by San Angelo at No. 5, and Corpus Christi ranks No. 4 among mid-sized cities.

Forbes credits the "unconventional oil and gas boom" for much of Texas' success, but also notes strong growth in technology, manufacturing and business services.

San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City ranks No. 1 on the 2013 list, and Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin comes in at No. 2, followed by Salt Lake City.